All Your Little Things

Chapter 1- A Fateful Encounter

June 2016

Ali

I walked into Mongolian restaurant down the street from my all-girls high school. I was meeting up with my best friend, Elizabeth. We both went to high school together, and had been best friends since freshman year.

This summer, we were both going to London together. We both got jobs in London. Our parents got us an apartment to live in, and we were going to have an adventure!

I immediately saw her and sat down. "Hey girl!" She said and I waved back. We ordered and ate, sipping our drinks and wasting the time on this empty Saturday.

"The concert was amazing last night!" I said. We had gone to a One Direction concert the night before, and had a blast.

"I know. I swear, Harry looked right at you!" Elizabeth said, as we had first row seats.

"Yes, he looked into my eyes and fell so deeply in love that today, we'll meet because he went looking for me, and spend the entire summer together and get married. Get real. He looked at hundreds of other girls, darling."

"It could happen."

"In your world of fantasies and dreams."

"I like that world." She giggled, and so did I.

We kept talking. "So, I think the first thing we should do in London is visit Milkshake City, TopShop, and Jack Wills and a Nando's...yea. That should do it." Elizabeth said.

"I want to sleep when we get there."

"No!" She ordered.

"I'll be back!" I said with my best Arnold Schwarzenagger impression. I walked up to the manager, and asked a favor, which he agreed to, with a ten dollar tip, of course. I got back to the table.

"So, Lib," I said,

"So, Ali." She responded.

"In honor of our leaving for London in one week, I have planned a surprise. A flashback to freshman year." I took her hand and stood her up, leading the two of us to the center of the restaurant, as the familiar toon began to play.

"Dum, d-dum, dum, dum, dum.."

"Ali!" She exclaimed.

"You're insecure, don't know what for!" Liam sang out of the speakers, and we danced like complete idiots. Doing the signature One Direction dance moves: the stop the traffic, let 'em through, 1,2,3, flick, sprinkler, which way am I gonna go, oh there we go, and the JLS she makes me wanna.

We looked so stupid, and I could have cared less. We were stupid together, and that's what counted. I loved Elizabeth to death, she was like my twin sister. We were so dedicated to One Direction, and this is how we let it out. At the end of the song, we were gripping each other's arms, laughing.

"Quite good dancing. Great song, huh?" A British accent asked, and we both turned to find five very attractive boys standing in front of us.

"Holy shit." Elizabeth said, and I slapped her.

"Don't swear!"

"Seriously, Ali?" She looked at me. "Has that ever worked for you? Have I ever stopped swearing?"

"No..."

"And don't you swear?"

"Yes..."

"Then shut up!"

Somebody cleared their throat, and we looked back to the boys. "Holy shit. One Direction." Lib said.

"Hi, we're One Direction." They said in unison.

"Yes, we've, uh, we've established that." I told them.

"And you are?" Louis asked.

"I'm Elizabeth!"

"I'm...uh..."

"She's Ali." Elizabeth said for me.

"I can do it myself, thank you!" I said.

"Really?" We both laughed.

"So, you're fans?" Liam asked.

"No...pshh. We just, uh, we, uh." I tried to recover our idiot ways.

"Oh, so you just do those terrible dance moves on your own? Come on, no one is that bad besides us." Zayn said, and Elizabeth and I both laughed.

"Yea, we're big fans! Found out about you four years ago, and we went to the concert last night! You all did absolutely amazing!"

"Thanks, that means a lot!" Louis said.

"So, what are you doing for the rest of your weekend in Cleveland, Ohio?" Lib asked.

"Not much planned, actually." Harry said. "We'd love to hang out with you for a bit."

"Oh, yea, that'd be, that'd be cool." I said.

"Great. Why don't you come by the hotel. We're leaving right now actually. You could all come with us."

"Um, yea sure souds great!" Lib said. We picked up the check and followed them to the van. We got to the hotel and fought though a bunch of fans, and finally arrived at the hotel, safe and sound. Well, sort of.

We all sat down. Elizabeth and I took a couch, Niall and Louis were in two chairs, Zayn and Liam sat on a smaller couch, and Harry sat on the ground, sitting on his haunches.

Elizabeth kicked off her strappy flip-flops and pulled her feet under her.

"So, do you guys live here?" Niall asked.

"Yea," Lib answered. "Born and raised in the oh-so-beautiful Cleveland, Ohio. Yea, we go to school down the street from where we had lunch."

"Oh really?" Liam said.

"Yea, an all-girls school. We're graduating tomorrow actually!"

"Are you going to uni in the fall?" Zayn asked.

"Yes, we're actually going to London for uni. The first semester, at least. Should be exciting." Elizabeth said.

"Oh, well you'll love it! Maybe we can hang out when you get there!" Harry told us.

"Well, honestly, we're coming down in a week. We both got jobs for the summer."

"Doing what?" Lou said.

"Well, I'm working as a dance teacher for younger teens at a studio." I said.

"And I'm also working at a dance studio, helping with the younger kids." Elizabeth said.

"And we can use the practice space after hours." Ali added on.

"Really? Dance?" Liam said.

"Yep, I've always loved being with children, and watching dancers, so this seemed like a fun job." Lib said.

"And me," I told them. "I've been dancing since I was five."

"Do you want to be a dancer?" Zayn asked.

"No, I'm not built well enough for it, but I want to get my business degree."

"Hmm. Interesting." Harry said.

"Well, we better be going." I said. "Maybe we'll see you in London." We gave them a hug and bade goodbye. Once we got outside, Elizabeth and I began to fangirl and scream over meeting One freaking Direction.

"Do you think we'll really see them?" I asked.

"No." She said. "We're lucky we saw them once. They won't talk to us again! They're famous! And we're potatoes!" I laughed a little, but it was sad that it had ended so suddenly.